


Domination

by kakumei



Series: Manufacture to Destroy [1]
Category: Dragon Age
Genre: Arguing, F/M, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-02
Updated: 2012-08-02
Packaged: 2017-11-11 06:14:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/475408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kakumei/pseuds/kakumei
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Zevran is introduced into the party, Alistair and Nida have an argument over leadership.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Domination

The elven assassin stared up at the Warden before him in amazement and then, while he rubbed away the wet foliage from the locks of his hair, slowly rose upon his polished leather boots. “I hereby pledge my oath of loyalty to you until such a time as you choose to release me from it. I am your man without reservation - this I swear it.”

Normally, Zevran did not mind having an attractive, young woman give him her attention at such a long interval; in fact he regularly sought and took advantage of such a situation. But the way she stared it felt as if her vision was boring straight through the depths of his physical being, sawing at his body in search of some fault in his words. Veiling his reaction to such an unnerving creature, he pulled out his dagger as an offer of his modesty. But Nida shook his head.

“Your dagger’s best left in your hands, not mine.” she cooly explained. “We wouldn’t want you left empty-handed when you fight the darkspawn with us.” She shifted the weight of her bow upon her shoulder and stepped over the startled assassin, intent on moving along the rest of the weather-beaten path.

“R-really? You’re letting him come with us?” came a startled cry from behind her.

Nida’s footsteps stopped and her gaze then turned to Alistair, who only returned an equally bemused look.

“I seriously can’t - c-can we talk privately about this for a second?” Alistair moved his body forward in a meek attempt to assert some sort of authority amongst them.

“We’re in a hurry.” she insisted impatiently. And rather hopelessly at that - she knew that Alistair, with his incessant, undying desire to pester her during his times of moral crisis, wasn’t going to let her drop the issue entirely. So she waved him to the side of the road and away from the others, past the fallen moss-covered tree that had intended to squish her flat like a pancake and took him behind a large boulder.

Although the crown of her head only reached the tip of his robust chin Alistair felt that it only gave her an advantage in tearing off his neck with her bare teeth - which was what her eyes promised him she would do should their conversation turn an ugly end. He gave in to his usual impatience and leaped right to the premise of his argument.

“That man tried to take your life! He sent an entire squad of assassins after you - he’s dangerous! Is it really smart to let him come along with us?” Alistair’s eyebrows furrowed, and he buried his hands under his elbows so she wouldn’t see them shaking from his adrenaline and anxiety.

“I don’t understand you.” was Nida’s initial reply, a frown following her delivery. It wasn’t as if she meant to make him disapprove with her actions; there were grueling, ruthless measures she had to take to realize their goals. “With every companion we’ve taken with us, you always complain. Wasn’t it you who said we needed help in defeating the Blight? Wasn’t it you who said that I should lead? Do you not trust me?”

He babbled incoherently before words finally came. “I DO trust you! I-it’s him that I don’t trust!” Even Alistair couldn’t help but feel embarrassed over how childish he appeared.

Nida crossed her arms, the corner of her mouth upturned in a snarl. “If Loghain was desperate enough to send an assassin to thwart us, what’s stopping him from sending another? We keep Zevran, neither Loghain nor the Crows will be certain about his success. That will buy us time to continue our business without their interference,” she argued.

“What ever time we have left with the risk that he might poison our food or stab a knife through our backs at any given moment!” Alistair threw his hands up in frustration.

“Look -” She hissed the word through her teeth as she edged closer against him, almost causing him to topple against the boulder behind him. “We don’t have time to judge our companions based on our moral convictions. Zevran has skill with a blade, and his other assassin talents will serve us well. He’s no use to us dead.”

Alistair stiffened, and he recaptured the space between them with a violent surge forward, forcing Nida to pull back and raise her chin higher to witness the fury welling up in his eyes. “So you’re just keeping Zevran because he ‘has skill’. Of course! Is that all we are to you? We’re just tools for you to use and take whenever you please?” he berated.

“You know fully well those are not my intentions, Alistair.” The brooding look on Nida’s face had darkened, and yet as he watched her hands slide weakly from her chest he knew she was close to submission.

“What about people like Leliana and Wynne?” Alistair nearly choked in the back of his throat. “Are you planning to use good, innocent people just to have your way as well?”

“No!” Nida growled, jabbing a bow-calloused finger against the veridium steel of Alistair’s armor. Suddenly her tolerance of his behavior had met its limit; of all the times when he had questioned her leadership in the past, he had never crossed her as much as this particular moment. “You tell me to make all these damn decisions while you sit around in the background and bother me with your stupid complaints. If you really want your opinion to be heard, I suggest that you stopped hiding behind those stupid jokes of yours and try to take on some actual responsibility for once!”

The metal finger joints of his gauntlets creaked. “Maybe you’re right.” he cringed. The measure of pain in her words were equal to the truth behind them. But he wasn’t sure what had hurt him the most - the idea that Nida had felt this about him the entire time in his company as he suspected or that she had finally admitted this openly to his face.

“My opinion did stop becoming important long before you took the lead, didn’t it?” he looked at her in regret and anger. “I really thought we were in this together. But yes - my naivety and stupidity won the day, didn’t it?” He waved his arm in jest as if to usher her down some golden-bricked path to the Maker. “Well go on, ‘Miss Leader’. I suppose I should shut up and let you use me too. Or perhaps I should just get out of your hair and leave, hence I start annoying you again with my ‘opinion’!”

She flinched.

His expression suddenly subsided, calm but concealing his quiet horror. Did he dare to acknowledge the fear in her eyes, or how her usual confidence had subsided and her pallid body merely froze in sight? Alistair had never seen Nida so unguarded. The reaction - no, the entire situation - felt foreign and bitter as if it had been an anomaly of reality that should have never really happened. But here he was, and it dawned on him that he really was reprimanding her for something he had forced to decide on her own. And strangely enough, she was submitting.

“I’m not using you.” She wanted to be firm, but the quietness in her voice betrayed her. “I don’t want you to leave.” Her voice was absorbed by the preceding silence that came between them for a brief moment.

Alistair sighed in regret. “I don’t want to either. I won’t.” Rubbing his arm, he began to hate himself a little for putting themselves in this position - he shouldn’t have let his frustration get the better of him.

“I certainly hope so.” The sharp assurance of her words returned, and Alistair could feel Nida slightly revert back to the prideful, Dalish hunter she had always seemed to be. “I wouldn’t been able to have done any of this without you. But I’m telling you,” Nida’s voice was gentle despite its assertiveness. “We need Zevran. He swore an oath - that is enough for me to not doubt him.” She hoped to satisfy him with this - that there would be some peace between them from what she had said.

“I guess I understand,” Alistair hesitated. “That won’t stop me from giving a once-over on my cheese supply every night, however.” He directed his gaze to the tip of his steel boots, a bit ashamed that he had forgotten how his humor bothered her. “M-my jokes aren’t that stupid, are they?”

“No.” Nida’s tired eyes sprang to life; her hand had twitched, even, but she restrained herself. Touching his shoulder would be rather inappropriate considering the circumstances of their partnership, she decided. Too inappropriate.

“Sometimes your humor can be quite refreshing, actually.” she confessed.


End file.
